I am having some difficulties with my Astro 110V welder. It has been working fairly consistantly for quite a while. The last day or so I have had a problem.

The welder seems to be having less and less power. I have learned to keep my weld area clean, to the extent, that I even sandblast difficult areas between welds.
Normally some of the higher settings would just burn right through sheet metal. That doesn't seem to be happening most times now. I have to turn up the power just to weld! It's almost as if the welder has reached it's duty cycle, but the welder has just been turned on so that doesn't seem right either.

I opened up the box, checked for loose connections, changed cords etc.

Any other thoughts on this?

I know it's a low cost welder, but I'd like to nurse it along, until I can trade up to a miller or something like that.